Spotify has begun to ask users to prove their age – and will stop them from seeing some content if they cannot.
The company will now check whether users are adults before they can watch content that has been marked mature. Users that it suspects of being under 13 – the minimum age for an account – could be removed entirely as a result of the checks.
The changes are part of widespread new age verification checks that are being introduced in response to UK legislation. While much of the focus has been on pornographic websites and sites such as Reddit or X/Twitter which offer adult material, it covers any service that hosts content that might prove harmful to young people.
That includes Spotify, which has warned that some of its content might only be suitable for older audiences. Age verification is required to “access some Spotify content and features, like Music videos that are labeled as 18+ by rightsholders”, according to a help document on its website.
The change was announced weeks ago. But it has received new attention this week, as the deadline for age verification checks under the Online Safety Act has passed and those checks have gone into effect.
The company has partnered with Yoti, a UK digital identification firm that is being used by an array of websites to conduct age verification checks. Yoti offers a variety of different ways to check a users’ age, and says that it will keep that information secure.
In the case of Spotify, Yoti will ask the account owner to show their face to their phone and then use algorithms to estimate their age. Spotify and Yoti say that the data will be kept safe and will be deleted once the age check is conducted.
If that does not work, or the age verification process suggests that a user is underage, an account holder can then use ID to verify themselves. That can be done from the account settings page.
If users are unable to satisfy those checks, however, they might lose access to their account, the company warns.
“You cannot use Spotify if you don’t meet the minimum age requirements for the market you’re in,” the same help page reads. “If you cannot confirm you’re old enough to use Spotify, your account will be deactivated and eventually deleted.”
